BUFFALO NEWS BLOG REVIEW 7/24/10
Subversive's 'Mother': Brecht goes
interactive
By
Colin Dabkowski BUFFALO NEWS ARTS WRITER
Kurt
Schneiderman has been stickin' it to the man since he launched his
rabble-rousing Subversive Theatre Collective in 2002. And with an
interactive production of Bertolt Brecht's THE MOTHER, which opened
Friday night at The Manny Fried Playhouse as part of the 2010 Buffalo
"infringement" Festival, he's inviting you to do the same.
Subversive's production of the play, a highly
didactic piece focusing on the plight of oppressed Russian workers, works by
virtue of its game-like setup. At various points during the show, audience
members act as props (doors, windows, even printing presses) or play the parts
of protesters, cops and strike-breakers. All of this has the effect of turning
what would otherwise be an eye-rolling Marxist diatribe into an evening that
actually approaches fun. And that's no mean accomplishment.
Rebecca
Ward turns in a consistently amusing performance as the titular mother, who
morphs from know-nothing peasant into political agitator through the course of
the play. She's joined by an energetic cast of familiar faces, from the
excellent Lawrence Roswell in a variety of roles to Andrew Kottler, familiar
to Subversive audiences from his starring role in January's (ill-fated)
production of "84." Clever incidental music was
provided by the avant garde "sound-crafters" Patrick Cain and
Gabriel Gutierrez on a variety of rustic instruments, including the theater's
sliding garage door apparatus.
The
real stars of the show, however, were the audience members, who quickly shed
their initial reticence and became more than eager to participate in the
action as the play went along. To get the full experience, I played a
strike-breaker, an alternately amusing and frightening experience that had a
crowd of angry strikers launching fake but surprisingly realistic-looking
rocks at me from the other side of the theater as I scurried to hide behind
the blocky set pieces. Others were instructed to march around, holding
signs with such slogans as "Bolshevik
(sic) have more fun," "BP
Sux," and "Lenin
Rocks."
Although
one might question the wisdom of mounting a long piece of interactive physical
theater in a sweltering and poorly ventilated space, Schneiderman has always
believed that you have to suffer a little bit for your art. But really,
a decent air conditioning system might help folks focus a little more intently
on Brecht's message.
Theatrical
purists might find this a
pproach gimmicky. But I think it fit perfectly into the do-it-yourself
Infringement Fest vibe, which to me is one of the most interesting aspects of
the festival and what sets it apart from the glut of summertime festival
options our city boasts. Never has a Brechtian political screed been so
amusing.
--Colin
Dabkowski
Click
here to view this article at its original source (the Buffalo News' Arts Blog)
complete with video excerpts and interview with leading lady Rebecca Ward
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